Having no car really stunk. Read on for a delightful series of events.

Last weekend I had to return the borrowed Accord since my Mother-In-Law was coming back from her San Jose trip this week. Because of that, we were back to having just 1 car for the family, and let me tell you, it was no picnic. Here’s some of my tribulations the past week:

Monday:

I had to go to Cincinnati on a business trip so I needed to get to the airport.

The flight was at 8am, so I had to leave the house by 6.

Elsa couldn’t take me since she had to get the kids ready for and take them to school.

$42 later, a cab dropped me off at the airport (this all after waking up at 5am).

I flew pretty much all day since there are no direct flights from John Wayne to Cincinnati. Both flights were completely full, and I ended up in the middle seat both times.

Arrived in Cincinnati, got to the hotel, started working since I hadn't had adequate internet access all day.

Tuesday:

Not going to blame this whole trip on the lack of having a car, but just for establishing my state of mind, here’s some details.

The west coast-to-east coast time change always makes it really difficult to sleep “on time.”

I ended up working late the previous night and couldn’t sleep until 3am EST.

I had to wake up at 6:30am EST since I was carpooling with one of my bosses who needed to start his day at 8am (my meetings started at 9), so I basically got about 3 hours of sleep.

6:30am EST was really 3:30am PST, so I had also been up for about 21 hours the previous day since I got up at 5am PST to catch that flight.

Day goes by. I had my meetings. Internet access stunk all day. I take a cab to the airport to fly home.

Another full day of flying, and I arrive at John Wayne around 10:45pm PST.

I had no car, so $43 later, a cab dropped me off at home. It was 11:30pm and I had $85 less dollars in my wallet because of this lack of car ordeal.

I had been awake for another 20-some-odd hours straight again.

Wednesday:

As usual, when we have just 1 car, my wife has to take me to work.

But first, we needed to take the kids to school.

Which is not a big deal since my first meeting was at 9:00, so the dropoff should give us plenty of time.

Incidentally, that meeting was originally scheduled for 9:30, so again, I had no reason to believe dropping the kids off first would be a problem.

During the drive to school, I get an email stating my meeting had been moved up to 8:45.

This isn’t just any meeting. It’s a meeting with just about everyone I report to and their bosses, and their bosses’ bosses.

At this point, it would appear that I have JUST BARELY ENOUGH time to barely make it there by 8:50.

I realize, I’m going to be late for a very big meeting where I have to present to two CEO’s and the senior management team.

Well, turns out, the boy forgot his trumpet so after dropping the kids off, we had to go back home, get his trumpet, then drop it back off at school since music is the first class of the day, and I can’t let the boy sit there without an instrument.

This made me even later.

The meeting started without me. Thankfully, my staff was prepared to take over the first part of the presentation.

I walked in late, like an idiot, and resume on slide 3.

Not a good way to start the day.

Of course, with no car, I also have to bum a ride home.

Thursday:

Still no car. I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning so I walked.

The appointment takes longer than I expected and when the nurse goes to draw blood, she can’t find my vein, so she ends up not doing it at all and tells me to make an appointment to get it done at another facility. No one has ever had problems finding my vein before.

But, since it’s getting late and I have another meeting to get to...whatever...I walk home.

Elsa couldn’t take me to work because we’re waiting on a guy to come fix the dishwasher.

I can’t wait since I’m already running late for a meeting with...you guessed it, my boss.

I took the family car, figuring I’d just drive home for lunch and my wife can drop me back off at the office.

I walked in 15 minutes late to my meeting. It had already started. I felt like an idiot.

The meeting went over by an HOUR so now, my lunch hour was shot.

I had another conference call scheduled at 1pm, but I needed to get the car back home so my wife could pick up the kids from school later.

I cancelled my 1:00. Called Elsa to heat up a coupla slices of pizza since I knew that once I got home, we’d have to turn right back around in order for me to make it back in time for my 1:30 meeting.

I ate in the car, then was 10 minutes late for my 1:30 meeting.

The 1:30 meeting also went a tad long (partially because I was late), so I was 5 minutes late for my 2:00 conference call, which just happened to be with another high ranking official in the company.

I felt like an idiot again. In 2 days I managed to make myself late in front of pretty much everyone ahead of me in the chain of command.

Call wrapped up, but now, since I had been gone or in meetings all morning, a bunch of my staff was waiting to get to me for one thing or another.

It was a hectic rest of the day.

I had no car, so I needed to bum another ride home.

Friday:

Got a call from my dealer that the M3 was delivered to the dealership that morning!

Three days earlier than promised but there was one issue...the right front wheel had a gouge in it.

Fortunately, all of my paperwork validated the fact that it was not damaged when I dropped off the car so the dealer is going to fix it.

MORE ABOUT ME

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If you’ve ever Googled me, I’m not the 3D Animator from Singapore or a NASA engineer. I’m a former Designer and Creative Director who also loves gadgets and technology. This combination makes me a pretty big geek.

I spent about a decade working for Design Studios and Ad Agencies, then went client side in 2001 with a stint at GoTo/Overture/Yahoo!. In 2006 I joined Oakley to head up the web business and run digital strategy for the brand. That was a job I loved and never planned on leaving, but then Apple called in 2012, and I couldn’t say “no” to a dream job at a company I’ve admired for over 30 years.

I’m also an Internet pack-rat and have a hard time getting rid of all the old personal sites I’ve created so I usually just leave them online for posterity, even though a bunch of the feeds no longer work. Check out some of the archives in the links that follow.